It’s Alive! Intro: 

Behind the scenes work in film and TV is a point of intrigue. This pervasive interest is of course, sustained by passionate fans and boundary breaking creators over several decades. All this culminates in Impact24’s March 30th “It’s Alive!” panel at WonderCon, which offers an interesting look behind the scenes of fan-favorite shows. Running for the fourth year in a row, “It’s Alive!” did not disappoint this time around. The panel features special guests from shows such as “The Winchesters”, “Fall of the House of Usher”, and “Euphoria”. 

Panelists provide insight on the magic of editing, music, special effects, and even the casting process. Detailing the way they bring film and TV to life serves as the crux of this panel. 

Casting Process:

It is a surprise to learn about how much goes into the casting process. Casting is often more complicated than using personal judgements to determine who’s casted in a show. Therefore, hearing casting director Jazzy Collins detail her experience working on “The Traitors” is insightful. 

“Since it has a psychological element to it, we really made sure that we had different types of people, different walks of life. People that you normally probably would walk on by and be like, oh, they’re not going to be manipulative.” Collins said. 

This insistence on diversifying the cast to keep things interesting has earned the show a 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Solidifying casting directing as a skill, also Collins mentions how diversifying the cast complicates the celebrity aspect of the show. 

“When you have some celebrities intermixed in all of these huge reality stars, you want to make sure that these people can level up or be gullible when it comes to the Rachel Rylins of the world.” Collins said.

Music:

Creating music in TV shows is a collaborative process. Whether it be with the directors or writers, music is the glue that holds together the audio component of an otherwise visual story. Austin Roth describes this form of collaboration when working on the show “Euphoria”.

“Sam Levinson loves to use his camera work. He’s always moving the camera, he likes using reflection and mirrors. So he had a visual vocabulary, so we wanted to create a sonic vocabulary that matched that.” Roth said. 

In reference to his work on both “Euphoria” and “Griselda”, Roth said, “It’s really fun to work with the director and kind of create these visions.” 

The collaborative process between sound design and film is one of the many behind the scenes processes that can make or break shows and films. 

Composer of “The Winchesters”, Phillip White says something similar about his time working on the show. Specifically, he mentions his work on episode 12 of “The Winchesters” detailing how story and music come together.

“I ended up writing this kind of waltz that sounds, you know, at first glance, when you first hear it, it sounds like you would hear it at any kind of carousel or circus, that kind of thing. And it sounds like, oh, this is so sweet. But then as you see this character Limbo appear and as you see, as you get more… as the characters are drawn more into the world, it starts becoming more dissonant.” White said. 

Music can determine the atmosphere of a show or movie, making it important for music to collaborate with visuals and story lines. 

Editing:

Another key aspect of film and TV is editing. Creating seamless editing can often be a challenge as editing in itself is an art form. Making sure that scenes transition smoothly is a skillset. According to 9-1-1 editor Charles Little II A.C.E. seamless editing is the goal.

“You know what’s really good when you can’t tell. My job is to make it so that you’re just in the experience that you’re not seeing editing. You’re just in the experience.” Little II A.C.E said. 

That said, budget has a part to play in the process of editing as well. According to “Not Your Daddy’s Films” Co-Founder Carlye Tamaren, budget played a big role in the improvised and experimental editing of The Devil’s Daughter.

“…We didn’t have a proper VFX supervisor on set, which I just, I cannot wait to have proper, proper funding to make the next thing, because that would be so helpful.” Tamaryne said. “It was, yeah, a lot of improvising in the edit, a lot of seeing what could work, what might work, and trying things out and then truly checking all of the footage to see what we could construct that might make any sense. Yeah, and honoring your vision in terms of following your lead. Yeah, right. Because it’s like, you know, not everyone’s going to get it, but I’m like, I promise you, in the end it’s going to be sick.” 

This style of editing is not necessarily a bad thing as being experimental can often make things look seamless. That said, it is interesting to see how different editors find ways to transition between scenes. Additionally, those choices can often define a film or series. 

Conclusion:

The “It’s Alive!” panel was an interesting look at different aspects of production and how they intertwine. A lot goes into making a good show or film. Whether it be the music, editing or even the casting process, elements must collaborate to form one whole. While the video of the event has not been uploaded by Impact24, their other panels have been uploaded to their youtube channel. You can find this channel and previous “It’s Alive!” here.